BSP MP, wife arrested following maid’s death at their Delhi residence

New Delhi: BSP MP from Uttar Pradesh Dhananjay Singh and his wife Jagriti were arrested on Tuesday in connection with the murder of their 35-year-old maid and "mercilessly" torturing another minor domestic help with sticks and rods.

The body of the maid Rakhi, bearing burn marks and injuries on the chest, stomach, arms and legs, was recovered from Singh's residence at South Avenue here last evening after the Jaunpur MP himself informed the police.

38-year old Singh, who already faces charges of murder, extortion and other offences under the Gangsters Act, was arrested for destruction of evidence, not informing police about the maid's death immediately and employing a juvenile as domestic, Mukesh Kumar Meena, Joint Commissioner of Police (New Delhi), told reporters here.

Jagriti, 29-year old Dental surgeon at the RML hospital here, has been arrested under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 344 (wrongful confinement) of Indian Penal code and Juvenile Justice Act.

This is the latest in a string of cases involving torture of domestic helps being reported from the city in the last few months.

Police said Rakhi had been burnt with hot iron and was beaten up badly.

"The juvenile help told us that Jagriti had been regularly beating the three domestic helps including Rakhi on petty issues. Rakhi was brutally beaten on Diwali night and she succumbed to her injuries next morning," said Meena.

He said Dhananjay has been charged with destruction of evidence as he removed the hard disk containing CCTV footage collected from 20 cameras installed at the residence.

"Dhananjay was informed about the death in the morning yesterday but he informed police about it late in the evening," said Meena.Dhananjay and his wife are going through divorce proceedings. Jagriti was taken into custody on Tuesday morning and questioned for over 12 hours.

Police said the maid died due to injuries inflicted by the MP's wife around 8.30 on Monday morning, but the matter was reported by BSP MP to police only at 8.30 pm.

They said the injury marks were visible on arms, legs and chest. Dhananjay told police that he was away in his constituency in Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh and reached Delhi only in the evening and subsequently informed police, said investigators.

Jagriti had called Dhananjay and informed him about the maid's death, police said. Rakhi had been working at the MP's residence for the last 10 months. According to police, Jagriti had been allegedly torturing her maid during this period.

"Although she was torturing her for past many months, but the frequency of beating had gone up since November 1," said a senior police officer.